FILE - Shareholder Tina Schmidt of Cozad, Neb., wears a shirt with Warren Buffett’s portrait in the style of an Andy Warhol painting at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. OMAHA, Neb.
Buffett has long recommended that investors pay more attention to Berkshire’s operating earnings if they want to get a good sense of how the businesses it owns are doing because those numbers exclude investments. Berkshire’s bottom-line profit figures can vary widely from quarter to quarter along with the value of its investments regardless of whether the company bought or sold anything.
The four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research predicted that Berkshire would report operating earnings of $7,335.11 per Class A share. Berkshire’s revenue didn’t change much at $92.995 billion. A year ago, it reported $93.21 billion revenue. That number was ahead of the $92.231 billion revenue that three analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted.
Berkshire owns an assortment of insurance businesses, including Geico, along with BNSF railroad, several major utilities and a varied collection of retail and manufacturing businesses, including brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candy.Funk is an Associated Press reporter who covers all the major freight railroads including Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian National and CPKC.